Best book for JLPT study

Hey everybody,

What do you think is the best book for passing the JLPT? I own Genki I and II from my university days (my professor helped write it). But is there a better one for passing the JLPT (3kyuu in particular)? Someone suggested "Mina no Nihongo." Has anyone had experience with that series?

Re: Best book for JLPT study

We had minna no nihongo as our University textbooks........I wouldn't say it's designed for the JLPT. For reference, you can buy the books of previous exams, they're really useful. And if you have an iTouch/iPhone, get the app KanjiFlip for kanji study.
Laura

Minna no Nihongo won't cover everything on the JLPT 3 syllabus, but it's a very good textbook and you can get CDs that accompany it. I would recommend going through Minna no Nihongo and then the Kanzen Master series JLPT 3 grammar textbook to mop up anything that it doesn't cover (or if you're very ambitious, just the Kanzen Master - it basically lists all the grammar, point by point, with a tonne of sample sentences and practice questions). I'm pretty sure that should do the trick.

Re: Best book for JLPT study

I found last year's at some store that had the master series. I got it right after the test results were out though. There's a website that has a lot of the text parts available but I don't have the link since I'm on my phone. If someone PMs me I'll try to find the bookmark once I get home so I can post it here.

Re: Best book for JLPT study

My local Bookoff is rubbish as far as Nihongo-learning materials go, but you can certainly get them on Amazon (eg. here), and you can get them in one of the big bookstores near Shinjuku station - the one that's in one of the department store buildings, over two floors.

I found a JLPT3 practise/old exams book in a book-off, but it seemed rare to find any useful Japanese learning material in most of them, and it was always difficult to find which education section they were kept in.

Re: Best book for JLPT study

The Kanzen Master books is purely a grammar reference for JLPT with practice questions. It's very boring, but I used it once I had finished Minna no Nihongo to reinforce the grammar. Did the problems, and researched the grammar points I had problems with.

Re: Best book for JLPT study

I studied using all of the books of tests from previous years. I after doing each one, I had a tutor explain the items I didnt understand and retook them again and again. I took 3kyuu this year and I thought that it prepared me pretty well.

I was also using KanjiFlip to study, but one problem that I had with it is that the "block" font they use in the program is very different from the font on the test. I had trouble recognizing some of the kanji in textbook/test form that I had already memorized on my iPod! If possible I would reccommend that you study kanji in the basic font. They are really radically different.